Inky Help
by CRYSTALFANG
Summary: Making a deal with a demon isn't the BEST of ideas, but then again who could blame Henry? It wasn't everyday you ran away from your impending doom by an inky monster. And besides, it wasn't like Henry was actually going to SAVE Boris. Unfortunately, you get a taste of what you've paid for, and that applies to uncovering the dark side of a studio Henry never wanted to come back to.
1. Prologue

**A/N: My literal first attempt at a Bendy and the Ink Machine fanfic, so please let me know how it is! I've got a semi-idea of how the plot is going to work. Also, I THINK chapter two is out, but this an AU type of story so please don't tell me it's incorrect.**

 **Review, favorite, or follow my dudes!**

 **Now on TO THE STORY!**

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Inky Help

Prologue

The simple fact of the matter was that they were a family friendly company who endured the struggle of trying to become the next Disney productions studios. Joey Drew, the man who made it all happen, was the boss, and a very creative one at that; he thought up the many scenarios and what not that many others within the studio couldn't even imagine. His bright eyes and cheerful smile could send a flickering light bulb back to being a regular glowing object. Then there was Henry, by the scenes he did the final workings that would bring the show to life; it was him who would show case Bendy and Boris together on screen going on their wacky adventures, and the many mischiefs that Bendy got himself into.

As expected, everyone loved the two, and as expected by Joey, they became a huge success…

Until crew members stopped showing up on schedule. Usually Joey would be there to scold them like a parent, but not today, and so most of the crew was quite nonchalant about their laziness and how their boss was nowhere in sight, however, what they _weren't_ nonchalant about was the strong smell of ink. Days felt like months where Joey seemed to always be up to something else, and all the while the profits slipped from the crew's grasp. Each day a maintenance crew member would complain, and somewhere down the line of complaints Morris, who did the voice of Boris, was threatening a lawsuit, why was still unclear to everyone, especially Henry who had decided he would just assume everything would go back to normal.

And back to normal things did. You know...for four days that is. Joey had finally stopped pestering with the ink machine, but when Henry saw his face he saw that the smile filled with charisma was false, and that the twinkle in his gray eyes had faded to be replaced with something else.

"Joey…," said Henry with concern. He reached with a hand to steady his business partner but he only waved his hand away and righted his body posture, plastering on a plastic smile as if he was on camera in the middle of an interview.

"It's alright Henry." Joey said with nonchalance - he had that way of doing so in times were anything but.

 _Like I'd really believe that..._ Henry thought. Then, suddenly, Joey was clutching both of Henry's arms and pulling his face in close to his. When he looked into his friend's eyes he saw desperation and something akin to glee bouncing around in their gray depths.

"Henry," he said with a note of enthusiasm, "there is something you _must see_."

"Uuuummm...okay?" Henry said with worry. He was not used to his friend acting like this, his behavior spoke volumes of unnatural.

"Not now!" He practically yelled into Henry's face and so he flinched out of defense.

Instead of saying something the animator could only nod his head. Joey eventually let him go, and after that he did not come away from the ink machine, or his office.

In his office, a small corner near the wall, he would sit and mutter to himself as he sketched and erased, sketched and erased, sketched and erased to the point where it had become slightly worrisome. Henry never mentioned it, and Joey never brought it up. New Bendy and Boris Adventures episodes had occurred, days turned into a whole month.

It was on a Tuesday of the month of February that something startling happened. A cardboard cut out of Bendy had appeared out of nowhere from behind a wall. Henry was an anxious type, and so jumped and spilled his coffee all over the wooden floorboards; Joey's cup remained held in his right hand.

"Aaaw, shit! How the fu-" when the dark haired man looked up, Bendy's cardboard cut out was gone, but the coffee spill was still there.

And so was a droplet of ink.

Business was slow, almost too slow in fact, as once again the animation crew had not shown up, or at least the majority hadn't shown up. Morris never filed his lawsuit, although some speculated that Morris had all but vanished, though he did appear in the newspaper claiming to be 'missing'. When brought up, Joey would laugh as if it was a joke, proclaiming the daft fool would return soon, and had probably taken a vacation like the rest of his incompetent workers.

"I swear Henry, one of these days...I'm put them all in a barrel and roll them off a cliff." Joey had once said seething with rage. It had occurred to Henry at the time that Joey was probably seriously considering on doing that. Later on, with production slowing down and Joey nowhere to be found, Henry once again walked the long hallways of the studio that he had grown accustomed to; every creaking floorboard he knew well enough, and every room he could identify from a distance. He knew how to get to just about anything and everything in every room - he knew where the keys were to get downstairs.

It was on a cold day, a Friday if you will, and the wind howled outside and rattled the frame on the wooden door that was the entrance to the studio. The smell of rain was quite heavy on the horizon as were the dark clouds hovering over the edge near the harbor. Surprisingly no sounds of thunder or lightning were heard in the distance.

 _That's a shame_ , Henry thought, _I could have went for a thundercake right about now…_

"Oof!" Then he was bumping into someone and tripping over his feet. A sturdy hand grasped his and pulled him back up to his feet, when he looked up he saw it was the handsome actor, Chris, who voiced Bendy.

"Oh hey Chris!" Henry greeted, "Sorry bout, uh, bumpin' into yah...heheh…"

Henry was a nervous man as well.

Chris shook his head, the mop of tousled brown hair that lay on his head flopped into one of his chocolate brown eyes - he did not move it though.

"It's fine really," the tan skinned man stated," honest."

Silence descended upon the two for a moment. In that moment of silence the sound of faint humming could be heard in the distance along with the occasional grunt and thunks of heavy machinery.

"At it again I see…" Chris stated striking up conversation.

"Hmmm, yeah." Was all Henry managed to say - he had never been good at continuing conversations.

So Chris did it for him. "Aren't you ever concerned for him Henry?" He asked.

The dark haired man could only shrug in response, offering a simper smile. "I've been... _thoughtful_ towards some of his methods of becoming famous, this one just so happens to take the cake."

They shared a slight chuckle, and then were back to being serious.

"I'm...I mean I ain't saying the guy's nutso, it's just - I got family Henry, a good looking wife, two sons, and a teenage daughter who thinks she's rolling in dough all because of the money I make off of doing this; I come here everyday," he spread his arms as if to gesture at everything around them, "and still no new script, _nothing_!, and it's gone so far where even the _animation crew_ is walking out? You don't think that's weird?" Chris said, and he said it all without even having to go up for air. Henry could see why Joey had been so adamant about Chris getting the part of Bendy.

"I think a lot of things about this company are weird Christian, doesn't mean much - though the animation crew complaining makes about as much sense as the maintenance crew stop complaining." His own little attempt at lightening a situation. Chris didn't buy it though, instead he only offered a sigh.

"This business is going _down_ I tell ya, I just…" Chris leaned in to whisper into Henry's ear.

"Don't tell Joey, but I'm gonna go and work at Disney soon."

"WHAT?!" Henry yelled, or rather muffle yelled due to a massive hand being placed over his mouth making the rest of his words unintelligible. When Henry had all but finally calmed down Chris continued with glee seemingly uncaring of his friend's outburst.

"I tried out for a part in one of their cartoons but the spot had already been filled and so someone else got the part. But now it's open again for another cartoon! They said I did well before with my last voice performance and so gave me permission to be part of the show."

"Oh well...congratulations…" Henry said though deep down he was worried. It seemed like everyday someone was leaving the studio behind in better pursuit of something else. The worst part was that Joey seemed blissfully unaware of it all.

He was too busy fiddling in the backroom with the table and candles lying about.

Two days after his talk with Chris and Henry was welcomed to the front middle hallway of the building splattered in ink with a Boris cutout propped against the wall. Henry had to spend the first hours of the day cleaning after the mess that Joey had created. Later on in the day only five members of the crew showed up for work. They did absolutely nothing, with Joey doing other important things as he claimed they were to just...do nothing. That was pretty much it for everyone.

The next day Henry saw only three members of the group show up. Moments later they left with their belongings. Joey did not come to the studio today.

Chris did as he had told Henry, he went to Disney - the two stayed in touch and it was with slight happiness for his friend that he found out that Chris was making it big time with the famous company. The next day afterwards everything was sullen; the mutterings coming from the ink machine were quite loud, every time Henry stepped on a floorboard the sound of creaking had grown tenfold - the buzzing caused by some of the flickering light bulbs had grown ominously loud to where it was annoying as it reminded the editor of mosquitos. The sound of heavy footfalls could be heard a little ways down followed by a series of less heavy footfalls.

A man dressed in a white tank top and blue jean overalls stomped past Henry who could only watch in shock as the maintenance crew member gave a few choice words towards Joey, who had appeared behind Henry. The maintenance man made a shake of the fist at the two before leaving.

It was back to square one: just the two of them...alone together again…

…

A month later and Henry was considering on walking out although Joey was still in the mindset that they'd be famous with his new project.

Which, when Henry saw it he was brought back to a conversation that he'd had with Chris over the phone.

"I'm telling you man - when you get up in those years your mind is...your mind is _brazen_ in a way that leads to detrimental dysfunction. He is out of his _mind_ , Henry. I knew it, everyone knew. And so do you."

He'd calmly disregarded his friend's claim. Looking at what stood before him, he regretted that decision deeply.

His elementary school friend _was_ crazy - crazy enough to literally bring cartoon characters to life.

Literally.

They were both alive and breathing...or at least Boris was, he had no idea what Bendy was doing.

"How are they even... _what_?!" It was literally all he could say, he was so...so…

Angry.

Joey was unbeknownst to this at all as he was too busy bursting with pride at his creations.

"I know right?! I was the same way, I was all whaaaat and like oh my goodness I didn't think it would work but let me tell you something-"

He was cut off mid sentence. "No, let me tell _you something_. I spent these past few months, thinking you were just ill after your parents died and all, but that isn't the case it seems!" Henry gesticulated with his arms wildly at Bendy and Boris who either couldn't hear or had no idea about what English was because they seemed to have decided to ransack the rest of the room than listen to their creators squabbles.

"A-and you go off and create these...these...MONSTERS! HAVE YOU NO SENSE IN THAT ORGAN OF YOURS CALLED A **BRAIN**?!" There was silence for a moment to where even Bendy and Boris had stopped what they were doing to watch the spectacle.

 _SMACK!_

Henry was stunned as he stumbled back a few steps, a red handprint on his right cheek where he'd been slapped. He stared at Joey who had a look of rage in his gray pools; something akin to a growl rumbled in his throat as he stepped closer to his partner and promptly picked him up by the collar, displaying a strength Henry hadn't known him to have had.

"If you don't want to be a part of this," he said, foam and spit dribbling out the sides of his mouth with a manic look in his eyes, "then by all means come here again I swear I'm cut you to pieces - YOU HEAR ME! I DON'T NEED YOU! I'LL BE FAMOUS, FAMOUS, FAMOUS, FAMOUS, FAMOUSFAMOUSFAMOUSFAMOUSFAMOUS, FAAAAMOOOOUSEE!" Joey dropped Henry and went down on his knees screaming to the ceiling all while Bendy, completely alien to what was going on danced in a circle around the insane Joey chanting the word famous over and over again acting like some Pre-K student who just learned to pronounce a new word.

Henry could only watch in horror.

Chris had been right...so had everyone else.

…

Three days later and Henry left leaving his childhood friend behind as well as what he'd created.

He left in his rugged van leaving a falsetto of dreams that could never, and would never come true.

…

Ten years passed when Joey inky body was found by a hobo, a wrench was lodged in the tall man's throat, he was clearly dead. When the cops showed up no one noticed the cardboard cutout looking out one of the flimsy windows.

Nobody saw the blood on it's face.

The police couldn't get inside due to the decrepit place being so heavily barricaded.

Nobody would be able to get in or out.

Unless it was a letter of course, signed by Joey Drew.

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 **A/N: And that's a wrap.**

 **In the meantime, can't get enough of ME, well then, why don't you check out my other stories and see my bio and learn a little about me!**

 **DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW, FOLLOW, OR FAVORITE! I HOPE THIS WAS SATISFYING ENOUGH FOR EVERYONE!( ^** **ー** **^ )**

 **AND THX SO MUCH FOR READING!**


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: So to clarify, that prologue was a summary of the shit that went down in the studios.**

 **I don't if it was meant to be a silent film or what so bear with me on the voice acting. I always speculated that Bendy didn't want to swallow Joey whole, that and I have a theory that Joey gave up his soul in exchange for becoming famous.**

 **At least that's MY conspiracy theory at the moment.**

 **I think.**

 **Thank you to SnowsGirl and Kyren Caedes for the review! It was very much appreciated.**

 **Anyways, STORY TIME!**

 **IF YOU WANNA SEE THE CHARACTER DESIGN FOR BENDY, GO ONTO MY DEVIANTART PROFILE TO SEE IT!**

 **DEVIANTART PROFILE: SavannahClover**

Inky Help

Chapter One

Running down the rickety halls at the speed of...well a refrigerator running really, Henry tried to escape his impending doom. Blood roared in his ears as he heard a voice oozing with agitation from behind.

"The more you run the more you're delaying your own death!" Bendy growled. Ink spilled all over the floorboards before rising up like a wave reaching out to grab him. Henry looked behind him and cried out as a surge of blackness spilled over his face and into his eyes.

"GAAAH!" He cried out shielding himself with his arms. He felt a sharp sting that gradually grew and pulled back to see sharp cuts made by claws along the length of his right arm crimson fluids trickling out. Henry looked up to see a inky white face looming over him dripping black all over.

 _Shit...shit, shit, shit!_

Looking to his left he noticed a door and quickly without hesitation rushed into, but not before locking the door. Giving a cursory once over he saw that, like the rest of the building, it too was decrepit with some of the floorboards seeming to have sunken in on themselves and a few upturned. A single light bulb flickered and swayed from the ceiling bathing pale yellow light into the half lit room. Ink dripped from corners and was splattered on the floors. There was a couple of shelves that Henry noticed were covered in ink as well, some toppled over and some standing up straight with a couple of books on them. He also noticed that there was a knife on one of them.

All of this information was gathered in the blink of an eye as Henry locked onto the knife and rushed towards it snatching it off the shelf it was on before ducking behind one of them in the darkest part of the room: the corner.

There was silence for a moment, and then.

 _Squelch, squelch, SPLAT!, drip, squelch_

Then the door knob was jiggling, or at least Henry could hear it jiggling as the angle he was at didn't allow him to see all that well especially with the dim lighting too. The door knob was jiggled once more before it stopped. There was a sigh and then the door was being banged on to the point where, if he were to peek out from his hiding place, he would have noticed that the door was pulled slightly from its frame from the force alone. This banging went on for sometime an then it like the door knob ceased.

Hesitation made Henry's movements slow to the point where he seemed to pause and move almost like a turtle. He peeked his head from the corner to have to hold back a gasp of horror as the monster he'd been running from surged up from the floor in a dark, dripping, glob of smelly ink. While his head seemed to have remained the same the rest of him wasn't - what had once been a small, slender yet chubby, cheerful looking demon made for kids was now a full blown creature of darkness; proverbially speaking of course, the only part of him not black was his still smiling face. Though his once round to the tip ears? - horns? - seemed to have become definitively sharper, but the most primitive disturbing difference between the cheerful demon and the one coming from the floorboards was its body in general.

Henry couldn't even fathom what type of sorcery or voodoo magic could have been used to create such a thing. Its body had taken on the form of a slender, more elegant, yet muscled, version of a human.

And it was fucking creepy.

Henry made no noise as his anxiety took over and waited with baited breath for something to happen, if anything to end this nightmare he'd walked into. Bendy did nothing except stay where he was, and it didn't occur to him until now that the creature was perking its horny ears which flicked and twitched about.

"I know you're here, Henry…" He said. The ink on his face began to melt more and more till only half of his smile was left seen to the naked eye. A soft gulp, and his anxiety took over causing him to move to the left hoping to have better cover options near where two shelves had toppled over.

Had Henry been looking he would've seen the recorder laying next to his hand.

He leaped back with a yelp as his hand landed accidently on one of the buttons, the play button, causing the machine to start playing.

 _ **Recorder: This is Joey Drew *crackle* and this is me giving a summary of experiment one.**_

Henry blinked at the recorder in wonder and horror. _What does he mean experiment one…?_ He thought.

 _ **Recorder: It seems that both Bendy and Boris have responded quite well to what I gave them, though…*muttering* No Henry, that's fine take care of it later! Go on, finish your work. I'll be there soon…**_

 _When did I...Joey…_

At that point Henry had went from being horrified at his mistake to down right just plain confused.

That was until a wave of black ink smacked down onto the floor besides Henry who yelped in fear. A face slowly melting with a fucked up smile on it grew larger till it once again towered in a hunched position over the human who stared up at it with long fangs jutting from the curve up its upper lip.

"Henry! So nice of you to join me! - I was afraid you'd leave me behind and I'd have to look _all over for you_ , but thankfully that wasn't the case!"

His cheerful smile was such a falsetto of lies that it unnerved Henry to a certain degree. How had something, something that _he'd created_ be alive and breathing and be able to just... _live_. It was scary to think that the possibilities for what magic could cause this sort of thing were endless. And Henry would've thought on it more if it weren't for the fact that he was currently barrel rolling away from what almost became his inky doom. The sudden roar that flew from the demon's pitch black mouth was startling to say the least as well as terrifying.

Running as fast as his legs would allow him the editor found himself tracing his steps back to what he was _hoping_ lead to the exit. Although he'd walked these halls his whole life he'd spent with the animation crew that didn't necessarily mean anything it seemed, as the building being in its decrepit state it was in some of the halls looked as if they lead to other areas of the buildings or dead ends. Which is exactly what Henry ran into - a dead in. He heard a chuckle from behind and turned to find himself once again staring death in the eyes. Jet black cartoon eyes met his and he could see his reflection within them.

"Well, Henry, you like what I've done to the place? Spruced it up a bit just. For. You! Isn't that exciting?" The cartoon character asked with glee. It was obvious to just about anyone that the demon was mocking him wholeheartedly.

Before Henry could say anything he was interrupted by the demon once again, and as he talked it only occurred to the human at the last moment that he still was holding the knife in one hand which was cut due to when he had been running the knife slipped and slice through his skin.

"...then again it isn't like you'll get to see the rest of the place-" Bendy never got to finish his sentence as he cried out suddenly when a sharp tip was embedded into his right cheek slicing through it and leaving a large cut in its wake. Henry stepped back breathing heavily as he admired his work which halted Bendy in his tracks. There was a stiff moment of silence where Henry watched baffled as the cartoon character took one of his gloved hands and ran it over the black cut oozing ink; pulling his hand back the white had been smudged black with the ink, however rather than fretting over the loss of ink he found himself dipping his tongue out to taste the smudge of black liquid.

Another bout of silence and then:

"Huh...so that's what blood tastes like…"

Bendy's smile turned wicked as his eyes turned a deadly shade of red, "Makes me wish I'd eaten Joey sooner." He cackled.

Henry's blood had all but stopped as the gravity of the situation dawned upon him. He swallowed the lump that was in his throat and backed himself into the wall internally swearing at himself for not running at that exact moment. And he could've with how intrigued the demonic ink monster was with what blood tasted like, but sadly that wasn't the case a hand larger than his head grabbed him and soon he was becoming submerged in jet black liquid. It steadily rose, covering the base of his neck and working its way upwards towards an covering his throat. Henry gasped out as he felt his airway being cut off.

"Glaaa'k! W-wait a sec hold on can't we just...t-talk this through? Phrlgh!"

"You shouldn't have come here…" Bendy snarled. His eyes narrowed to slits his grip on Henry's throat tightening.

Henry inhaled another breath of stale air the lower half of him steadily becoming more and more numb.

In a desperate attempt to survive he did the only thing he could think to do.

"Nnnngh!"

No not that.

*wheeze*

Not even close to what I was talking abo-

*hack* *cough cough* *wheeze*

NO! NONE OF THAT, STOP DOING THAT!

"B-Bo...BORIS!"

Oh, he speaks, wonderful. Anyways!, after yelling that with the little breath he still had in his lungs he felt the ink hand covering his throat loosen till Henry was just dangling like a puppet from the demon's hand. The sentient being itself was currently glaring daggers at him, but in a way that spoke unchecked curiosity.

"Look, if ya lemme live," Henry paused for effect spreading his hands out like he was holding an offering. "And I can bring Boris back to life, I'm assuming that's what you want right?"

No response.

Henry assumed that was a yes and kept going.

"But if you kill me right now, then he'll stay like that for the rest of your immortal time on this earth…"

At first it didn't look like his words had gotten through to the demon, that was until the monster's grip loosened up a considerable amount allowing Henry to slip free from its grasp and onto the wooden floor. He looked up to see Bendy had a look of concentration on his face as he thought on the human's words.

Then suddenly in a blink of an eye the ink monster had transformed back into his original size which, up until now, Henry realized the demon was literally the same size of a cat if it were to be standing on its hind legs. In other words he was a very short creature that managed to scare the living fuck outta him in more ways than one.

As for Bendy himself, the fact that he had to look up at the human seemed to already have him pissed as his face was contorted into a pouty face with his arms crossed. His eyes, although cartoonish, had an intense emotion of wariness within their black depths.

After what Henry thought could've been two minutes of silence the sentient cartoon reluctantly stuck out a gloved hand in acceptance.

"Fine, okay we'll make a deal. You help _me_ bring Boris back to life and I let you walk away with all your limbs intact."

Henry huffed but stuck his own hand out having to lean and crouch to be at eye level with the cartoon character.

"Alright, fi-" he started only to be cut off.

"BUT!, if you even so much as _think_ of escaping without fixing Boris, I'll kill you."

A pause, a pause that left Henry wondering if he'd just easily tricked a demon, or if he was actually making a deal with a devil.

Inhaling a deep breath the Henry grasped a hold of the demon's gloved hand and the two shook, once before pulling away as if the very thought of contact was disturbing all their own.

"...So! Since I've very _clearly agreed_ to not escape anytime soon, and you've agreed to _NOT KILL ME_ , I believe we should go and…" Henry trailed off and looked around feeling sorely lost for the first time since he had a chance to finally breath without looking behind him every few moments.

But, now that he did he realized he had no ground to start on, and that made him realize how stupid his plan was from the beginning.

"...fix the machine."

Henry started. "What?" He asked.

Bendy rolled his eyes and placed his hands on his hips. "Fix. The. Machine. You know the thing that you were _supposed to fix_ but instead ended up breaking it."

"I know what I did, you don't have to rub it in…" Henry deadpanned.

"Yes, I'm very sure of that - I'm sure you're intelligence reigns supreme in that brain of yours."

"Are you saying I'm stupid?!"

"Yes. I thought that would've been obvious."

"Ugh, why did I agree to any of this?..."

Bendy shrugged nonchalantly, "Well I _can_ always kill you still…"

"No! No! No! No! No! that's okay!" Henry chuckled nervously, "hehehheh I take that back, let's go and, uh, fix that machine yeah?"

And so the story begins...

 **A/N: Bendy has sass and Henry's an idiot. By the way I should say something here but there WILL BE HUMOR. Or at least, my attempt at humor. Do expect some of it to appear at random. And thank you to those who reviewed! I didn't think this would be popular so fast! I'm so glad you guys are all loving it!**

 **So yeah, saving poor, poor Boris…**

 **If only this plot was about that (which it is) but seriously though, there's more to this than just saving Boris.**

 **And the plot is now HALF WAY THOUGHT OUT!**

 **Deviant art: SavannahClover**

 **Crystalfang OUT!**


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: Welp, I was gonna work on my other chapters for other stories of mine, but then I saw how much you guys REALLY SEEM TO LIKE IT, so I thought 'Why the fuck not?' And now viola! another chapter for the book you guys are so invested in, as am I.**

 **NOW TO ANSWER SOME REVIEWS! Skyrah the Crazy FanGirl: I'm stoked about as much as you, though of course I can't buy it unfortunately *le sigh*. I'm mostly, tbh, waiting to see if POiiSED, Markiplier, or 8-bitRyan are going to play the next chapter. I'm probably gonna go watch POiiSED play it though because I haven't watched his videos in a long time.**

 **Randomly Talented: I have a (somewhat) reasonable explanation for that actually...not that I'm saying anything NOW...͡° ͜ʖ ͡°**

 **And that concludes answering reviews! Glad you could all stick around!**

 **And also, PLEASE GO TO THE MEATLY'S PAGE AND SUPPORT THIS DUDE SO WE CAN HURRY UP AND GET CHAPTER TWO!**

 **I'm gonna see if I can support him without pledging, but I think I might have to…**

 **We'll see…**

 **Anywho, ON WITH THE STORY!**

 **NOTE: THERE'S AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE IN AUTHOR'S NOTE AFTER CHAPTER INCLUDING A LITTLE SHORT I HAVE MADE!**

 **ENJOY! (∩_∩)**

Inky Help

Chapter Two

 **(Hey look a coincidence!)**

The Ink Machine had been introduced to the studio crew at a later date during the early wee weeks of production. Back then, it had been shiny, with a couple of tiny ink splatters here and there at the bottom of the machine. The smell of the liquid was prominently strong which irked the majority of the people gathered in the room.

"And you bought this... _because_ …?" Henry asked. Although still quite 'fresh off the block' he had already made his mark within the studio - especially considering that it was him who made the design of Bendy. As soon as it had been shown to the rest of the crew many had slapped Henry on the back (quite hard) telling him how great it was and that they were all sure with his design they'd make quick bucks. Henry had all but meekly shrugged his shoulders and nodded a bit with a huge grin on his face, but when it came to talking to his boss, and friend, Joey Drew, his true personality shone through.

Joey looked at his friend who had pushed his way to the front of the crowd to glare at him. Joey blinked before registering his question. "Don't be silly Henry, there aren't any ink machines in Wal-Mart! I mean the supplies - that - that I used up some of our profits to buy them to make this, but!..." Joey paused for effect.

Henry, however was still quite miffed about the ink machine being a room that could've been used for something else. Of course he wasn't the only one as many of the other crew members were about as miffed as he was, though for different reasons.

"Are you kidding!" One exclaimed. "Are you crazy! You didn't just take profits to build something like...like this. But now you're gonna have to hire a maintenance crew!"

Joey seemed to be lost upon what the problem was as he was currently staring at the machine with an inquisitive glazed look in his eyes. He of course finally turned to acknowledge the crew member who had spoken.

"...So?"

"So?!" The crew member exclaimed in exasperation. "What'dya mean _so_ \- you're gonna have ta split tha bill between them and us!"

Others began to mutter in agreement whereas Joey just snorted derisively.

"That won't happen I assure you all," he said calmly. In response he got a few reluctant mutters.

"Now if you excuse _us_ me and Henry have much to discuss…"

Taking that as a cue to leave in a hurry is exactly what the crew did, bounding away back into the heart of the studio to complete their next line of work called _The Dancing Demon_. Quite frankly it had already become popular with the animation crew as the very thought of Bendy in a pink tutu was seen as quite adorable - and ridiculous. If he was alive, many would have liked to think he'd be terrible at ballet, and would most certainly hate being in a dress.

Henry stood where he was with his arms crossed awaiting some explanation.

Joey seemed lost in thought before he snapped his fingers and a bright look came across his features.

"That's it!" He exclaimed. The biggest smile he'd ever worn looked about ready to tear through his cheeks with how wide it had become.

"What? What's it?" Henry asked. When it came to some of Joey's ideas he knew he shouldn't have been curious, but sometimes the editor couldn't help himself but be curious of what the head animator was thinking.

" _You_ could be our maintenance crew!" He stated beaming with pride at his ingenious idea.

Henry however was a different story. "You...do realize crew is a plural word right? I'm just one guy, this won't work…"

 _SMACK!_

Henry coughed as he felt a heavy hand slam into his back. Joey called it his 'supportive friend pat on the back', but Henry liked to call it the 'sticks and stones may break your bones but so do hands'.

"You'll be fine, it's very simple actually! All you have to do is…" Joey whispered his directions into the dark haired man's ear as if he was afraid anyone would hear what he had to say.

"Wait...THAT'S why you made that pedestal room!" Henry exclaimed in shock.

Joey nodded as if this was common sense before he began to back up slowly towards the entrance of the room.

"Hey, look it'll be fine! As long you follow those directions, nothing bad will happen!" And then he left with a slight skip in his step which was completely unlike the usual calm man he knew.

Henry pondered on his words for a moment wondering if Joey's words were directed at him or the machine. He shook his head, it wasn't something to worry about, the majority of Joey's inventions never broke down or anything, it'd be fine. Everything was fine. With that thought in mind he turned his attention back to his friend's latest creation wondering what its purpose would serve in the upcoming months.

…

Henry did not think he would come back to Sillyvision Studios, nor did he think he'd stand in front of the very machine that had, when he first got here, almost drowned him in its liquid. Also, if he'd never turned that fucking machine on, Bendy wouldn't be here besides him, and he also wouldn't be alive right now too.

So basically everything that ever happened in the studios was thanks to this wretched thing that he now had to fix.

And Joey, Joey was also the cause of everything too…

"Alright!" Henry said in his most sincere jovial voice. He clapped his hands together and began to rub them in anticipation for the work about to set him free. "So here's the plan, I fix the machine, and _you_ -" he pointed at Bendy, "Get to stand here and be _completely_ , and utterly useless; for the sake of convenience if anything."

Bendy huffed and crossed his arms, "Oh, I see you think I'm unhelpful because of my size!"

Henry scoffed. "That's the same as accusing me of breaking and entering - I have done nothing of the sort." He stated calmly. He made a shooing motion with his hands at the little demon," Go on, shoo. Disappear into the ground or something'."

Bendy just gave him a look of incredibility. "You know...listening to you is depressing…"

"Oh shut up, what'dya know anyways?" Henry grumbled. He turned his attention back towards the old motorized machine. From the outside there didn't appear to be anything wrong with it, but as a man who had the misfortune of working with the machine longer than the maintenance crew he could say quite simply that it was far more than it seems. If the machine was messed up then the obvious problem was it was clogged.

The inside was a jumble of wires and cogs that miraculously worked together to make the ink bend to the creator's will. And in this case, Henry wanted the ink to start flowing, or, at least he was hoping the ink that was already flowing through the pipes - the ones that didn't explode from the high pressure - and that all he had to do was make the machine turn on. Saying that out loud made it sound easy, but once you got pass the cogs and wires it was a mess.

A literally smelly mess of ink.

The moment Henry pulled back the first inner layer he was appalled. Appalled because what was inside the machine that was causing it to not work was a decayed and rotten body covered in ink. Immediately its head slumped and promptly fell from its twisted position bouncing onto the floorboards like a basketball...right towards Bendy's feet. The cartoon picked up the rotten, flaky object and stared at it with mild interest before recognition sparked in his eyes.

"Oh yeah! I forgot I shoved a body in here!" He exclaimed not even looking slightly disgusted by what he was holding in his hands.

"Oh...my _god_...WHY ARE YOU ACTING LIKE THIS IS _NORMAL_?!" Henry practically hollered as he glared at the cartoon, doing everything in his will to not stare at the body part he was _still holding_.

And also not puke.

Bendy however was just uncaring and tossed the head off to the side where it collided with the wall. A loud snapping sound was heard echoing through the room as well as a dull thunk.

Henry puked in a corner.

Bendy rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Oh will you lighten up! It's just a head!"

Henry gagged in disgust, "What do you mean, "just a head"? That belonged to _SOMEONE_!"

The little demon lifted his gloved hands up in a sign of surrender. "Alright, alright! I get it! - you humans value your heads a lot, understandable at best, although you're still an exception since you're still an idiot."

Henry rolled his eyes letting out a frustrated sigh. _And I made a deal with this insufferable bastard...Oh, Henry mom always said you were daft in the most serious of times._

It took sometime, but after finally admitting that a three-foot-tall demon _was_ useful in certain situations, he was able to pull the rest of the disfigured body out of the machine, or at least its feet, half of its lower torso, and an ear. Where the rest of the body parts were well...Henry really didn't want to know. By the time the body was disposed of (into a corner) Henry was scooping dried clumps of ink out of the area where a massive vat of dark liquid sat. Judging by the smell the ink was quite old, and taking into account that it hadn't been used in so long Henry could imagine that a glob the stuff had formed creating some sort of dry, rubbery, smooth material over the actual ink. Thinking on that, if he could actually reach it then he'd be able to perhaps pop the bubble holding the hopefully fresh ink captive, be able to use that ink still left to turn on the ink machine, and save Boris - something his mind was still screaming at him not to do, but between the exit and freedom stood a demon with literal ink powers. Chances of escape at that point were futile.

It was what felt like a whole good two hours to Henry before he was finally able to find something that did _not_ feel like ink at all. Even though he was wearing heavy duty gloves he could still feel the awkwardness of the material he was stroking. It was the bubble; at least he _hoped_ it was the bubble. Henry pressed down on it and it popped without any resistance. _Thank heavens_ , Henry thought in relief, he would be able to get outta here without any repercussions, death, or dissected sentient cartoon and demon following him! Great!

"Aaaand my job here is done!" He exclaimed. He quickly pulled off his gloves threw them on the ground without a care in the world as he slammed the ink chamber closed.

He turned around to say something to the sentient cartoon but stopped when he saw what he was doing.

Smoking…

Or as close to a cigar as a cartoon could get, but still…

"Aaaaaand, you're smoking. Lovely, wonderful…"

Bendy pulled the cigar out of his mouth and glared up at the dark haired man. "I'm sorry - is there a _problem_ with me smoking as I please?"

"Multiple things, yes, but that's not the point, the machine is fixed!"

Bendy narrowed his eyes at him skeptically, "Are you sure? Because the last time you said that it bro-"

"Oh my god, how many more times are you going to remind me of that?!" Henry yelled throwing his arms into the air in exasperation. Bendy gave a little shrug before, like he did with the head, throwing the cigar behind him which quickly disintegrated into a puddle of ink.

And then he was walking off whistling what almost sounded like the same song Mickey Mouse sang in that one cartoon Disney made where the mouse was piloting a ship.

It took a moment where Henry was confused as to where the little cartoon was going until he looked back at the machine.

 _Oh right, the pressure room._

Henry hadn't touched the objects carefully placed in the pedestal room and so he quickly made his way to where the lever for ink pressure was. But it seemed he didn't have to as the tell-tale sounds of cogs churning ink could be heard as well as the rattling of the pipes overhead. Bendy had beaten him to the lever first as evident by a black streak in motion heading towards the room where Boris's cut open body was lying on a table. Henry followed as fast as he could after the ink demon, but he wasn't as young as he used to be and so was losing his breath faster than he thought possible.

He stopped and bent over on his knees panting heavily listening to the sounds of small feet running down the vast halls.

It was kind of creepy really.

It was as Henry finally calmed down his heart-rate enough to jog towards the 'Dissected Wolf Room' as Henry liked to call it that he heard a very pissed off Bendy.

"THE HELL!?"

Just hearing the anger from where he was made Henry run just a tad bit faster than usual till he stumbled into the room to see-

An empty table.

No longer was it leaning upwards, but instead laying flat like it might've originally have done before. While many changes had been made to the room Henry could still vividly remember this place being the break room. It had been his idea as Joey had been adamant about staff being independent and bringing their own coffee or mini refrigerator to work. After days of begging, pleading, and whining Joey finally relented albeit reluctantly.

It looked almost the same; except for the chains and ink splatters and red candles strewn about.

Oh and the pissed off demon in the room, that too.

Bendy was melting with ink dripping from his appendages and onto the ink stained floor. His fists were clenched to his sides and shaking whereas his black eyes held a murderous look in them. Henry wasn't great when it came to comforting others and so left the demon to his own devices. He studied the table for only a moment before giving a very half-assed explanation, or theory, on where Boris was.

"Maybe, he escaped the...chains…" Henry guessed shrugging his shoulders.

Seething, though out of frustration this time he glared up at the human. "He didn't escape, because if he could, he would've done it AGES AGO!" He snapped. Henry held up his hands in surrender and took a few steps back from the fuming cartoon.

"By the way, just thought you should know, you're melting all over the floor."

This seemed to stop the cartoon for a moment as he looked down at himself to see ink dripping off him in globs and splattering all over the wooden floor. The demon let out a huff of annoyance before closing his eyes and well just...standing still. At first the editor was confused, but then he started to notice the ink slowly seeping back into the sentient life form, and if Henry were being honest, it was actually kind of cool looking. Then the demon's eyes snapped open wide and he let out a little gasp that sent Henry letting a screech as he flinched away from the cartoon.

"The pedestals…" Bendy muttered.

Henry blinked in confusion, worry gnawing at his stomach. "Pedestals? What about the pedestals?"

"They're gone…"

Silence descended upon the two for a moment when suddenly a loud sound like a machine shutting down could be heard from a couple of halls down.

Down below that is.

There was a brief pause as the two both blinked with confusion at the sudden that _definitely_ didn't come from the ink machine.

"Well that was-" Henry started.

"Sssh!" Bendy snapped, "I'm trying to hear!"

 _Yeah, but you don't have ears._ He thought, but he remained quiet anyways and listened in with the demon. Another bout of silence and suddenly the same sound as before could be heard echoing this time.

Bendy had a confused look on his face and he glared at the floorboards.

And then began to tear them apart.

Henry stared at him baffled as he ripped wood from concrete flooring and tossed them aside scrambling at the concrete like a cat sharpening its claws on some sort of material.

"Uuuh, what are you doing?" He asked cautiously.

The cartoon did not look up from what he was doing and pulled at more floorboards making it a total of at least four floorboards now. "Trying to find out where that noise...hrrrgh!...i-is com-coming fffffrom!"

"Yeah, I doubt you're going to find it beneath concrete and wood."

"Shut up and help me look!"

So Henry relented. "Fine, fine."

For a good moment he walked around inspecting everything with mild interest until he saw a lever sticking out the side of the table. Curiosity getting the best of him the man glanced up at the table while holding the lever. He pulled it to the right and cuffs that held the poor wolf down sprang closed, when he pulled it to the left they sprang back open. Except for one: the middle cuff. It was the largest and was clearly designed to hold down the wolf's midsection tightly so he wouldn't move so much, but there was something... _off_ about it.

Inquisitive as ever the man walked towards the massive metal cuff and grabbed both ends and pulled.

 _CLANK!_

Henry stopped and stared down at the band. Yep, something was very off about this thing; good news was, Henry thought he knew what it was. He gave a little tug again for extra measure and was met with the same sound, though much louder.

 _CLANK!_

The loud noise seemed to stop Bendy in his tracks. His head shot up and turned towards the source where Henry had, after a few more tugs, been able to pull the brace apart causing the whole table to split open revealing a dark abyss that smelt strongly of ink. The same noise as before could be heard from the blackness.

"Oh, it's a chamber." Henry stated the obvious before turning on his heels and making to walk as fast as possible away from the what he was assuming was a bottomless pit only to feel a hand tightly grip his shirt pulling him back towards the entrance.

Bendy stared daggers at him, "The deal?"

"Woah, woah, woah! I said I'd fix Boris! Not look for him! - I am _not_ going down there!"

 **A/N: This has become incredibly popular fast, which I'm still surprised by surprisingly, and also grateful for.**

 **And because of that, this story is NOT OVER! As I've decided to make a sequel to this once it's over! Aren't you excited?**

 **Audience: AaaaaaahAaaaaaaahAAAAAAAAAAAAH!**

 **ME: YEEEEEEAAAAAAAH!**

 **Okay no but seriously, here's a sort of short (one of them) I've made for it!**

 **NOTE: SOME OF THESE SHORTS MAY NOT BE ADDED INTO THE SEQUEL.**

Bendy Shorts

 **The Pink Galalaya**

Henry had never been so humiliated.

That is to say, he'd never thought a cartoon demon would be the one to embarrass him in public, and at a mall no less. It had only taken the musical instruments of _Dirty Diana_ and soon the little devil was bursting from his backpack that he'd only worn because the damn thing wouldn't _shut up_. And considering on how many dates had gone wrong because of the demon's smartmouth it seemed befitting that he humiliate _him_ in public. The worst part was, he'd had a whole plan filled out in his head.

Now he couldn't use because he in a fast food restaurant, and currently everyone was gaping in surprise as the sentient being danced to moves only a legend of dancing should have known. Then again considering that there were no bones or muscles within Bendy, it made sense why he was getting so much attention. It was rare in this era to find someone so easy to move and dance with the grace that Michael Jackson performed onstage; it was even more so considering on his unique ability to do the moves right.

Especially considering that he was the one who made him memorize the moves to the song.

Totally an accident. Definitely not his entire fault...at all.

By the time the song ended Bendy was bowing at the line of customers who had started throwing french fries his way. Apparently nobody saw or smelt the ink coming from the demon.

Another they didn't seem to be aware of it seems is the unmistakable tail that only a demon could possess.

 **TO BE CONTINUED...͡° ͜ʖ ͡°**


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: Felt like this should happen, so I decided why the fuck not just throw the goddamn characters in here? My two personal favorites, Bendy and Henry!**

 **Bendy:...Why are we here again?**

 **For disclaimer purposes and also so you can read your lines.**

 **Bendy: Okay, I guess that makes sense, but why is** _ **he**_ **here then?**

 **I don't know...I didn't actually think this through…**

 **Henry: So you're saying I'm about as useless here as I am in the story…**

 **Yeah pretty much.**

 **Henry: You're worser than the small black elephant in the room, you know that?**

 **Well I am dark and it says so on my society label-**

 **Bendy: It says you're a snowflake**

 **Stfu Bendy! Why do you even care?! Do your fucking lines already!**

 **Bendy: FINE! *mutters* asshole…**

 **Bendy: *clears throat* Crystalfang does not own Bendy, or Henry. She only owns the plot and her design for the studio that doesn't exist in the game. All characters belong to Bendy and the Ink Machine (** _ **my machine**_ **) which belongs to theMeatly.**

 **Bendy: On another note Crystalfang has found a name for her sequel which is now being called** _ **Shorties**_ **...hey wait a sec…**

 **Bendy: I. AM. NOT. SHOR-**

 **Let's get back to our scheduled programming shall we?**

 **Bendy: Oi! Don't cut me off when I'm talking to yo-**

* * *

Inky Help

Chapter 3

 **Bendy: Are you fucking kidding me!**

 **Note: Actually, take that back Bendy was lying (as usual)-**

 **Bendy: HEY!**

 **And there is a sequel as well as a prequel that I am currently working the plot out for, but!, the sequel is called** **One Hell Of A Trip** **, and that's it.** **Shorties** **will just be a series of one-shots and adventures, and I'm not posting my sequel till I finish** **Shorties** **because there's important stuff in there that will be added to the sequel.**

 **PM me for any questions you have concerning the things you read in this chapter as well as in this note. Feedback is accepted! ^_^**

* * *

Rubbing his sore ass, Henry tried to pinpoint where the mischievous little bastard had went off to. The one who had rudely smacked his ass before promptly pushing him into the deep unknown. A decision he was sure the little demon was regretting a lot; Henry had been right, the darkness was bottomless (for two minutes) before the two had went splashing into what he wasn't sure was ink or water. What he _did know_ was that inky monsters can't swim, which admittedly brought a smug smile to the man's face as he swam to what he hoped was a shoreline.

Or a dock, that works too.

He reached out and gripped tightly at the wood grunting as he pulled his soggy body out the water which churned beneath him due to his movements. Shoulders tensed, Henry was quick to pull himself to his feet ready for anything. And by anything, that meant a mischievous little demon with a mischievous smile to match; quietness descended upon the waters in a way that sent a chill down the man's spine. Where the heck was Bendy?

Henry gently approached the edge of the dock staring wide eyed into its murky depths. It was so odd, how could the water be so...calm? Then again it wasn't like Bendy was actually a _being_ , he was made of ink for crying out loud!, but it seemed that that didn't matter here with the waters being so stiff, and so quiet it was like the demon had just been swallowed up by the waves when they'd crash landed into its depths. Or, at least Henry didn't do that, as a human he'd had ample time to prepare for hitting the liquid's surface.

Bendy was not as lucky. It had taken all of Henry's will not to burst out laughing while underwater at the demon flailing his limbs about in horror at being submerged into its cool freshness. And that had been the last he'd seen of Bendy; admittedly, he should've made a point to drag the cartoon towards the surface, but something told him the demon wouldn't have liked that at all. And so now, he stood, in silence awaiting the ink devil to appear from the darkness.

The surface was as smooth as the paint upon a white paper canvas.

What felt like minutes turned into what felt like hours to a point where Henry began to pace back and forth cupping his mouth in one hand while holding a contemplative look on his face. Every now and then he would glance at the water once more, but nothing happened. Being so concerned for something that had almost tried to kill him...it actually made the man think. He sat down with a heavy sigh upon the rickety bridge (if you could call it that) and not the first time, began to think about Joey's creations.

Henry closed his eyes as a flashback, one very vividly clear as if it had happened yesterday emerged from the leftover residue that was his past memories. He was shouting at Joey all while Joey looked on calmly whereas the two cartoons disappeared deeper into the room that made up Joey's office. He immediately drew his eyes towards the small shape of Bendy. The little demon seemed...almost...child like. His long, thin tail whipped back and forth with glee, and his eyes - were truly a sight. A bright shiny coloring of black is what he saw, if that was even possible; Henry was even positive he saw a shade of ruby red within their depths.

His smile was massive and cheery, glowing with cuteness and other things. Other things that seemed to know longer exist within the demon. At the moment Bendy was the living definition of a demon. He was cruel, vindictive, uncaring towards anything (shoving a human into the ink machine being a prime example), he was also mischievous, but anyone could be mischievous and still be playful and naïve. Something had happened in the studio when Henry had left, something had broke the demon - no - something _emerged_ within him.

He hadn't been that way...he had _become that way_. While indulging in his slightly crappy life, Joey had dissected Boris open at some point, and Bendy? Well...Bendy had been put in a situation where he had been able to do nothing all while Joey pretended everything was okay. Henry had heard nothing of Joey - in fact, as far as he was concerned at the time for his friend, he'd assumed he would stay cramped up in that old studio for his remaining days alive.

Proverbially speaking of course.

Ten years later and the man was dead, the first truly disturbing murder to appear within the confinements of the town he lived in. A small, slightly rural, and slightly suburban town where the minority knew the majority; everyone had a saying, and opinion, and contributed in some factor or other to the town's success. But, even still, sometimes the wrong people came to the wrong town, committing a crime here and there only to be sent to the holding cells before they're put in their correct jail.

So, of course, when Joey's body was found but no hand or fingerprints and no one had held enough of a grudge to actually _want_ him _dead_ many people had begun to panic; the only reason Henry had gone to the studio after he got the letter was because he couldn't just assume Joey _died_. Honestly, Henry wondered why it hadn't occurred to him that in such a small town he wouldn't run into the crazy hoot at some point while shopping or something; that letter was a perfect example of something that should've raised concerns, the last time Joey had showed him something Bendy had been breathing...absorbing air through his body...or something, and Boris had been an actually tall lanky wolf with thin legs and a wide snout white as Snow White it seemed.

And now?...he wanted to show him something else. There was a pause and it seemed even the slightly stale air had frozen in time as if anticipating something miraculous to happen.

Like a demon coming out of the wa- I'm sorry, _dragging himself_ out of the water.

Not that Henry was paying attention.

So it was with great surprise when he felt something kick him in his side making him crack open his eyes letting out a sharp yelp.

"Oooow!"

Henry leaped to his feet and into a fighting stance, or as close to a fighting stance as he could get. He relaxed however when he saw that it was only a nightmare that couldn't render properly, and by that he meant the very freakishly large creature coming out of the water - excluding the screeching demon.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!? BENDY WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Henry yelled at the inky demon who was staring wide eyed up at the hulking beast. It hadn't occurred to Henry until then that the cartoon was dripping with sludge, water, and ink whereas the monster trying to pull itself up on the dock wasn't dripping at all - even though it was made entirely of ink.

"I didn't do nothin'!" Bendy exclaimed, "Come on!" The cartoon gripped tightly at the frightened man's hand and pulled him along as the ink monster screeched its rage to the sky...er...ceiling…

Henry stumbled along after Bendy who was moving much faster than he thought possible, his thin, wiry, tail flicking to and fro as he charged down an impeccably dark passageway winding along its sharp turns all while still holding Henry's hand. The dark haired man was close to telling the demon to stop running but by then they had gotten to the end of the passage where it opened up into a massive room as bare as far Henry could see. Even still with the knowledge that it was just him and Bendy blood roared within the man's ears as he tried to regain his breath.

"Well, holy _SHIT_! WHHHHYYY, the _heck_ was that _there_?!" Henry didn't exactly know if the ink monster could actually come up out of the water but he seriously needed to vent right now.

"And here I was, expecting you to be _quiet_ , or at least know what that means," Bendy muttered though he was more concerned with the thing in his hands.

Henry turned to retort, but as he turned around to face the black and white cartoon he felt something soft, yet hard pressing against his leg within his right pocket. Cutting himself off before words had even left his mouth the man fished into the pouch of his pants to feel a leathery fabric grace his fingers.

 _The fuck…?_ Henry carefully pulled the object out to hold what looked like a...bible?...no not a bible. It did have the characteristics of one, but that didn't mean it was one. Looking closer Henry realized he was staring at the back and so flipped it to discover golden lace etched and threaded neatly into the middle near the top of the leather casing with the lace spelling out the words: DRAWING JOURNAL.

The man stared blankly down at the journal in confusion, why did it feel like he'd had something like this before? Henry caressed his thumb along the spine of the book the fabric being worn and torn up slightly along the rim. It was brief - the sudden flashback - he was sitting in...class? Yes, class, he was sitting in class and...coloring…? Maybe, but no he was... _sketching_.

 _Oh! It's my_ \- "HEY!" Henry's thoughts of discovery were interrupted by a white glove snatching the book away.

"Oooooh, a diary!" Bendy exclaimed with a look of mischief on his face.

"No! Put that down you stupid demon!" The man snapped reaching out to feebly grasp the journal only to grunt in displeasure as it was yanked from his reach again.

"Well...since you called me stupid - how abo _uuut_ no." Bendy said, a smarmy grin plastered (literally) itself along his white face showcasing his quite impressively, yet scary, large teeth. Henry shuddered as the very thought of being bitten by such teeth horrified him.

Bendy proceeded to open said drawing journal and flicked through the first couple of pages till he stopped on one particular page. His black eyes lit up like Christmas lights and Henry could just faintly make out the tell-tale signs of soft redish amber for a moment in the cartoon's eyes.

Bendy's smile grew tenfold and he cleared his throat dramatically before speaking in a very high-pitched squeaky voice that sounded more like a screechy pubescent child than what Henry _actually_ sounded like in the third grade.

"Dear diary, I think I an in vove with Chrilly Mooren, because I think she'k is very puuuurtty, and very, very, very smexy. I don't know vwhat thet mean to, I hoard momma say it wonce, anyways - HEY!"

The sentient being reached out to grab the book that had been stolen from him only to let out a huff of irritation when Henry lifted his arm higher into the air completely out of the demon's grasp.

"Yeah, that's enough from you," the man snapped waggling a finger at the cartoon like he were a child or something.

The cartoon character pouted heavily and crossed his arms, "I wasn't finished reading it." He mumbled.

Henry made a face. "I wasn't finished reading iiiiit - okay spoiled child, but if you don't mind, I'd like to take a look at memorabilia thank you very much so if you could fuck off please? I'd like to explore more of this gift sent to me, not you, _me_."

Bendy snorted. "Alright spoiled brat have your pick."

Henry stuck his tongue before opening the book once more and flickering through the pages, some of his earliest drawings from elementary school were contained within the pale yellow pages; every idea for a science project, every model for a clay sculpture was sketched in here. Small doodles of daydreams were scattered about the page, as well as notes depicting what needed improvement whether that be body posture or facial expression you name it, it was in there on some piece of paper sewn to the book. The more the man flipped through it the more his brain pieced together some of the drawings within them. There was one sloppy sketch of a tabby, it was supposed to be a close up portrait of his now deceased cat Franko, honestly Henry was ashamed he had ever forgotten about the ginger tabby and everything they had gone through. He flipped ten more pages and saw other drawings, the book, which had felt slightly light in his hands, suddenly became a bit heavier as pages that hadn't been there a moment ago popped up show casing the many sketches and incomplete drawings that Henry had made when in middle school.

A chill rushed up the man's spine when his eyes landed upon one particular sketch. It was rough, yet bold, an outline scribbled in pencil, but not everything was shaded in and there was a lot of yellow spaces left to fill. The thing was supposed to be a representation of a black bear, but with pointy ears and a snag of teeth that glimmered - they were sharper than knives - its limbs reached out outwards, big and burly. Its eyes were wide and white with cat slits. Off to the side of the drawing arrows pointed at different parts of the bear's body, one particular drawing saying: About half the length of a California redwood and a roar more powerful than three lions.

 _Oh my god, oh my god, oh...my...GOD!_

"OH MY FUCKING GOOOD!" Henry screamed. At that point Bendy, who was either frozen in time or sleeping on his feet with his eyes closed, jolted to attention. The thing that was still in his hand made a wet squelch sound as his glove tightened around it, the demon blinked twice before he realized where he was.

"Oh shit what I miss?" He mumbled out. A loud yawn soon followed in pursuit of his voice.

Yeah, he'd been sleeping.

The cartoon jumped back with a yelp mid-yawn when Henry thrusted the book page into his face. The look on the man's face made the sentient life form shiver, it was almost the same look Joey used to have on his face.

"Look at it!" The man practically shouted with urgency. So Bendy did look, and he was not impressed in the slightest by what he saw. He may have been a cartoon character, but he _did_ know how to draw and what that looked like in general. The drawing was so sloppy, he could barely tell what he was looking at, or what it was even.

Bendy looked back up at Henry raising an eyebrow that was practically nonexistent. "Yeah, I'm looking. Am I supposed to be applauding you or something…?"

"Look...closer…"

So he did.

"Oh...well then...that's new…"

The drawing journal wasn't just filled with all of Henry's old drawings from his childhood. It contained a drawing of a monster.

The same monster they saw not to long ago.

* * *

 **A/N: UGH, I hit a writer's block recently and it's still trying to take me over so I've just been doodling and drawing Bendy art for a while. Again, check out my DeviantArt page (SavannahClover) and you can view the few drawings I have of BATIM. I'm working on some other ones at the moment as well. Anywho, I know I said I'd do a Bendy short at the bottom but this writer's block is taking its toll, and that's the ONLY REASON I'M NOT POSTING ONE RIGHT NOW, I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHY THIS IS EVEN IN ALL CAPS LIKE WTF?!**

 **Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this story so far! PM me for any questions you have!**

 **Gee, I wonder what's in Bendy's hand? ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°**


	5. Chapter 4

**I am so oo oo sorry about the late update, but between my ultimate fail of a graduation from the 8th grade and feeling depression set in upon realizing how doomed we are as a species things haven't been on my side lately.**

 **To also note, this chapter was ALMOST COMPLETE!**

 **ALMOST!**

 **I was very upset to find out that the chapter itself could not stick in one specific direction, so I had to go back and change everything when it dawned on me so this is an "edited" version of the original chapter four. However, this is still in Bendy's POV and therefore was still hard to write.**

 **Hopefully this suffices all your needs of more Inky Help!**

 **ENJOY!**

Inky Help

Chapter 4

Total silence had accumulated over the pair as their eyes continued to gawk at the picture before them. It spoke volumes of unnatural that the monster who they'd just encountered was a still frame within the confinements of Henry's sketch book.

"There's no way...there's just no way…"

"Yeah…" Bendy said absently. They continued to stare at the picture in bewilderment.

"Hey Henry."

"What?"

"Can I ask ya somethin'?"

The human glanced at him with a cocked brow but gave it no thought and shrugged. "Sure I guess…"

"How do you become an animator, when you couldn't even draw a bear right?"

A moment of silence.

"That's what you're concerned about!?" Henry exclaimed in astonishment.

The demon shrugged nonchalantly. "Don't see why I shouldn't be. Like I said this drawing sucks."

"It does not! I put time and energy into that! I was only thirteen anyways." The man snapped defensively. He then hugged the drawing book close to him. The look on his face was of that of a man's pride being wounded due to being beat by a girl.

"So what? Did your hand just...have a...stroke or something and you couldn't get it to move at all?" Bendy asked with arms crossed over his chest.

"Having...a stroke? What, no!" Henry shook his rapidly. "I'm saying that I worked really hard on this! But that's not important right now."

"Uh huh, sure it isn't…" The demon muttered under his breath before giving a languid stretch. A small amount of silence descended over the pair as realization dawned upon them. They had no idea where they were, and considering on how bare the room was it didn't exactly give off any specific clues. That, and the fact that in the midst of their panic they had been doing nothing but running in some direction with no real goal in mind. But, now they had all the time possible to really think things through...and figure out there next step.

"So I guess…" Henry started.

"We - just head back the way were going before…" Bendy said with uncertainty.

"Yeah, but we _weren't_ heading anywhere." The man reminded the toon. Which was true in regards, and Bendy mentally slapped himself for forgetting that one forgetful detail; the two had fallen who knew how far into...water, a rather flooded area within the studio. But then, this couldn't possibly be part of the studio?...could it? As far as Bendy was concerned there were only two levels. Sillyvision (upper level), and Joey Drew Studios which was obviously the lower level; from what Bendy was told about the studio, it originally was only one story, but then Joey renovated the place and got the studio a new level.

The basement (Music Department) was a part of the first section - Joey Drew Studios - but during renovations Joey moved it downstairs. And that was pretty much all the demon knew. But as far as Bendy was concerned he could have been lied to about even _that specific thing_! Dammit!, he couldn't even trust his own knowledge of the studio?! Then again being trapped for ten years in a studio does have that effect on someone…

Probably.

Welp, they weren't gonna gain anything by standing around now were they? Without putting any plan into action the demon started walking towards the door. Just as he almost put his hand on the knob he was stopped by a very fretful Henry.

"Wait! What're you doing?" He asked in apprehension.

"Opening the door."

The man shook his head rapidly. "I know that! I mean _what are you doing_?!" He hissed through gritted teeth. The fear in his eyes was so surreal it was ridiculous, why the hell did he think that making a deal with this man was a good thing?

Bendy sent the man a half lidded stare, "Look, we can't stay here in this room forever, soon we're gonna have to get moving, and I say we get moving now." He ended his sentence on a glare; this wasn't an offering, this was an order. Now if only he could get his voice to sound that demanding...In the meantime Henry stood stiff off to the side, still very unwilling to move his body. A look of fear flashed in his eyes before he finally inhaled sharply and took a step forwards.

"Alright fine." The reluctance in his voice was not lost on Bendy. The reality of the situation was simple: they were stuck down a...hole, until they found what was hopefully an exit, or at the very least found Boris. And speaking of Boris…The toon demon pulled his hand up to stare at the pumping mass of fleshy ink. It was amazing that the wolf's heart was still beating even though ten years had gone by enough for the toon's heart to have dried up. After all, Boris wasn't running on the ink like Bendy had been doing for years now. Maybe...there was still hope for the lupine after all…

But then again ten years of living in a apathetic shit hole may have sucked all the hope the demon had left, and perhaps seeing this made a small light in the demon come into fruition mostly out of desperation.

"Hey, you comin'" Henry asked snapping the toon out of his thoughts. The toon hadn't even noticed that the man, who not a second ago was cowering in his boots, was suddenly taking up the initiative and walking out the door. Bendy was quick to reply with a nod twisting his body around fully while keeping his friend's heart behind his back. Then, came the most shocking thing the man had done so far, flash a smile at the demon.

"Don't worry, we'll get Boris back in no time!"

The hell had that enthusiasm come from?

The demon gave a slight smile though deep down he couldn't be as hopeful.

But then again...if dreams could come true then…

Well he was alive right?

…

 _It was dark, and cold, but mainly dark._

 _Drip, drip, drip_

 _Why was he here again?_

 _Drip_

 _Pain, he could feel pain...so was he...alive?_

 _Splat_

 _Oh no he was doing it again wasn't he? The sound of liquid splattering all over the floor could be heard echoing through the dark. The air was stale, there was no moisture to it. What little scents the creature could make out were blood...it was blood right? Yes, blood, iron, and…_

" _Mm...st….ma…" Their voice cracked. A low keen sound escaped their throats. Off to the side, the left, a groan responded._

" _Mmn...st..r...mn-"_

" _Quiet, my sheep or you will disturb his blessing upon you - and we wouldn't want that would we?"_

 _A low whine, and the sound of chains echoed through the area in reply._

A helpless scream.

A bleating sheep.

…

They had taken a left, walked down a long ass corridor, and then took another left which lead them to _another corridor_ except this one had rooms in it. In short it felt as if they'd been walking for at least half an hour (which they hadn't), but still…

The only good thing Bendy could find about all of this is that while there _was ink_ it didn't flood the halls and swallow everything up. The downfall was that he would probably end up needing some sooner or later at best. The duo trudged down the hall at a snail's pace, this was mostly pertaining to the fact that while they had encountered only one monster so far there was no telling if there were more out there.

Especially in the rooms they were passing.

The silence was deafening, yet comforting all at once. It didn't make sense sure, but for Bendy, the silence was all he really needed at the moment. The strong smell of ink, rotten wood, and the musk emanating from old paper was all he needed. For ten years the toon had been stuck in a world all his own - roaming the same halls and listening to the faint creak of wood. It wasn't homey, but it was all he'd ever had. But now there was a person coming into the mix, and he knew Joey Drew...he had been with the man long enough to know him...what he was like once upon a time.

Bendy did not believe in fairy tales.

Yet with Joey Drew he could see it making sense…

Bendy Shorts

KITTY

Henry was having an off day today. His boss was an ass, and this morning Bendy had thrown a tantrum. He'd also eaten some of the silverware. Why and how he did that was beyond the weary man, but he wasn't about to question that in the slightest. Right now all he wanted was to go home and rest, and lucky for him he had just parked in his driveway. Now all he had to do was get out the car, walk up the steps, open the door, move through the kitchen, hopefully (not to be rude) be able to avoid Bendy at all cost, and then walk up _another_ flight of steps, make a right, and open up his bedroom door, change into his pajamas, and hopefully die in his sleep.

EXQUISITE!

He opened his door and-

"Meowr."

"...Bendy…"

The demon looked up with bright sparkling eyes at the man. "Oh, hey Henry! You're back early."

Henry barely heard the demon's response, he was too busy looking at the fucking cat in the room.

"Uh huh, sounds great." He mumbled. The cat in question that Bendy was playing with was still a kitten, and yet that wasn't what Henry cared about, the thing was that the kitten still had a collar on, a bright gold colored one at that, as well as a small bell on it that tinkled every time it moved. As for its breed it was a Russian Blue. The blue-gray kitten seemed to sense the other presence in the room and turned its eerily, creepy eyes upon him.

"Mew."

"Well, say hi back, Henry!"

"...urk,...um, hi…" The man sheepishly waved.

The blue gray cat stumbled away from the demon's grasp and began waddling it's way towards the man. Tail held high it brushed up against him while letting out a series of soft purrs. Henry gulped, and had to contain himself to keep himself from pushing the kitty away, especially with Bendy just sitting there on the floor studying them closely.

It was creepy.

And this was not how he wanted to spend his afternoon after getting off from work...

But after feeling the strange kitten rub against his legs and the soft sound of giggling coming from Bendy who wrapped his arms around his midriff - or as close as he could get to it - Henry decided, maybe, this is what he had needed after all…

 **A/N: I love you all, and I am so fucking sorry for the extreme wait. Every time I mean to upload this I procrastinate. Not to mention I was in the wrong class for the first week of school so when I found which class I was supposed to be in via way of dear friend of mine who was in the same class, I had a lot of make up work to do.**

 **This story is being continued! I swear, but high school is taking me for a spin right now, bit hopefully when Winter Break comes I can at least hope to not have any projects or homework or incomplete classwork to do at that time so I can work more on this beautiful story.**


	6. UPDATE TIME BITCHEEEESSSS!

**Hello, everyone! It is me again! The bitch who has been gone for two years!**

 **But I'm back now to let you all know that I am currently working on the new version Inky Help, although it will no longer be titled as such. Instead the new title will be called:**

 **ABYSS!**

 ***screams sporadically***

 **Now that that's out of the way, the key thing to note about this story is that it will NOT be following the same plot as before and instead will have a slightly more complicated plot.**

 **Essentially, Henry Crosem (not Stein because this is an AU and I had already developed his last name WAY back in chapter 3) is sent to Joey Drew Studios, and while in the process of discovering the horrors trapped within the studio, the Ink Demon himself accidentally leads him to a discovery unlike anything else the studio has to offer.**

 **An off-model Bendy who is almost perfect.**

 **Hidden deep within the studio's ink-filled sewers trying to survive like everyone else. And that would be the end of the story if it weren't for the fact that this toon may be the only one who can lead Henry out of the studio for good, but that comes at a price...**

 **And although demons can keep their deals, whose to say men can?**

 **That's the briefest summary I can give, with a few things added in from the original summary that I posted to my Tumblr.**

 **Speaking of which, if you want to see artwork dedicated to BATIM you can go check out my Tumblr!: bendy-and-the-unrequited-cunts**

 **I don't have a full idea of Bendy's design or Hnery's, but once I do I will be posting a heaping load of shit for this AU on there so there's that. Also, I posted some other BATIM AU ideas on there as well that I'm thinking about doing some artwork for, so go check it?**

 **Anyways, that's all I wanted to say, have a great...whatever time of the day it is my torpedos!**


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